Love to Hate You, Hate to Love You: Creating Character Foils (ages 13-18)

The dark, brooding character who has a soft spot for their bubbly friend. The moralistic superhero whose nemesis is morally gray. The enemies-to-lovers who can’t stand anything about each other but fall for each other anyway. What is it about these types of characters? Why do people who are total opposites make for such compelling stories?

In this class, we’ll explore the idea of the character foil, and how characterization can come to life when we create counterparts for our protagonists who are the exact opposite of everything they are. We’ll read segments from a range of authors who use opposing traits to create amazing relationships, from Shakespeare to Benjamin Alire Sáenz, and talk about great character foils in some of our favorite movies and tv shows. We’ll use these discussions as a jumping off point for writing exercises in which we’ll invent our own original characters and character pairings.

For writers age 13 – 18 ONLY. Register here!